


crimson and clover

by zoeanne



Category: Elyza Lex (Fanverse)
Genre: Disapproving Family, F/F, Gay Panic, Slow Burn, culture clash, like super duper gay, super gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 00:44:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7384237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoeanne/pseuds/zoeanne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alicia is a softball star who somehow never realized she was into girls. She was supposed to go to UC Berkeley on a full-ride softball scholarship to study astrophysics, but the fucking zombie apocalypse happened so instead she's stuck with 3 strangers and her family, who might as well be strangers for all she has in common with them. And then she meets Elyza Lex. </p>
<p>Elyza Lex is an assassin for the Australian government who has known she was into girls since she was 6. She was supposed to be on a short mission in LA, but the goddamn zombie apocalypse happened so instead she was stuck stockpiling weapons and food and doing her best to show the other survivors that she is not someone they should be fucking with. And then she meets Alicia Clark. </p>
<p>Elyza's gay, Ophelia's gay, Alicia's bi, and everyone else is painfully straight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	crimson and clover

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first fic! I've been looking for an au where Alicia was a softball star who now uses her skills to decapitate zombies and haven't been able to find any so I finally broke down and wrote one myself. 
> 
> My Alicia is a little more dark and damaged than she is on the show but the Elyza/Alicia dynamic remains the same.
> 
> I hope you like it :)

Elyza has never really been known for being levelheaded, or for making informed and well thought out decisions. And she certainly doesn’t consider the consequences of said decisions. 

That was how she ended up sneaking into a zombie infested Wal-Mart because she had heard rumors that it was still very well stocked, even 3 months into the literal end of the world. 

It wasn’t a good idea and it could very likely end up being one of the last ideas Elyza ever had. Especially considering the fact that she had only brought a couple of knives, one shotgun, one handgun, and a pitiful amount of ammo. 

“Stay positive, Elyza. Don’t let the odds get you down, just think of it as another challenge at the academy. Just another training exercise.” Elyza whispered to herself.

She was carefully creeping down one of the darkened aisles, knife at the ready and senses on high alert. Even though stealth missions had never been her specialty, that wasn’t to say she wasn’t good at them. The Australian Secret Intelligence Service had focused more on muscle and hand-to-hand combat when they trained her, but she was certainly good enough to sneak up on a bunch of dead people.

She peaked around the end of the aisle and saw just what she had been looking for: the horde that inhabited this store. It was massive. There was clearly a very good reason why this Wal-Mart had never been raided, and Elyza was starting to think that it might be too big of a job for her. 

Shaking off her doubts she focused on observing the horde. After seeing just how many of the zombies there were she decided that this would need to be purely a scouting mission. She would watch the horde from a distance so she could see what areas the zombies stuck to, how many there were, and whether she could possibly collect supplies without ever having to confront any of them. And then she could go back to base camp and really load up on weapons.

The zombies mostly seemed to be clustered in the center of the store, essentially blocking the only way to get to the aisles, and minimizing Elyza’s chances of not engaging with any of them. It was going to make this the most difficult, not to mention the most dangerous, thing she had done since before the apocalypse. But that was almost an incentive to do it. 

Elyza crept back out of the store, her plan solidified in her mind. She would go back to her “house,” gather up as many weapons and as much ammo as she could and then be back in the morning for an all out war with the zombies. It wasn’t about supplies anymore, now it was just about the challenge. 

She was so caught up in her heroic plan for total zombie annihilation that she almost didn’t see the group of 5 people go into the Wal-Mart. 

“What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck!” Elyza spluttered. “Oh, I am not about to let someone jack my fucking mission.”

She stormed into the store, forgetting the fact that she was hopelessly under equipped for a fight with a horde of this size. The first dozen zombies went down easy. She came up from behind and stabbed each one of them through the head with her hunting knife, quickly moving on to the next one without slowing down. After a dozen more she heard the sounds of a fight. 

Her instincts kicked in immediately and she was running over to where the sounds came from, knives out and taking down zombies along the way. She rounded the corner and saw a young boy on the ground, scrabbling backwards away from 3 zombies. His leg was bleeding and he was trying to fight off the zombies with the can of beans he had in his hands. 

Elyza didn’t know if the wound on his leg was a bite but just in case it wasn’t she lunged forwards, kicking the closest zombie in the chest and knocking it back. It fell against the display of Snickers bars behind it and sank to the floor. The next one came up quickly, rotting hands reaching for Elyza. She slammed her knife into the top of its head, twisting it once for good measure and then pulling it out to jam it into the ear of the third zombie.

The two she had just dispatched fell on top of the first one as it struggled to get up. Elyza smirked and curb stomped it, crushing its skull and then scraping the brains off her boot on the lowest shelf. 

“Curb stomping gets so many brain bits on my shoes, it’s almost not worth it,” She sighed. “But then again I do look badass, right kid?”

She turned to the boy on the floor and smirked, reaching down and pulling him to his feet. He stumbled back from her, holding the can up in what Elyza assumed he thought was a threatening manner.

“Uh, um, just because you saved me doesn’t mean I’m helpless or anything,” The boy stammered. “I could take you if you tried anything.”

Elyza cocked her head, listening to the sounds of a struggle coming from the next aisle over.

“We do not have time for that right now. Sorry kid, maybe next time. Now, let’s get going.” She said.

Elyza rushed to the next aisle, pulling the boy along behind her. She spotted the zombies as soon as she rounded the corner, 4 of them swarming one woman. She was doing her best but all she had was shotgun that she seemed very reluctant to actually fire. Elyza rushed up to one zombie, stabbing it through the head and using its body as a buffer as she shoved the remaining 3 zombies down. Once they were on the floor she used her knives to take them out, opting to go for efficiency over looking badass.

The woman gaped at her and she rolled her eyes.

“I saved your life, you’re welcome, and no, I’m not going to kill you or steal your supplies, blah blah blah. Where are the other 3 people you were with? If they’re anything like you wankers I’m going to have to save them too.” She said pointedly.

“Wankers? Excuses me?” The older woman demanded.

Elyza rolled her eyes. American women were such prudes.

“Seriously? That’s what you chose to focus on out of that whole speech? Not the saving your life part, or the saving the rest of your party part? We so don’t have time for this shite.” Elyza groaned.

The woman looked taken aback and somewhat ashamed.

“I’m not sure where they are but they should be close by, I think.” The blonde woman stammered.

“Fuck. This store is massive, they could be anywhere,” Elyza groaned. “Alright, let’s get going then. This will take a while.”

She moved down the aisle swiftly, turning the corner to find nothing. She moved on to the next aisle, her two new companions trailing along behind her. After three aisles she found another person, a young guy with floppy brown hair.

“Mom? Chris? And, um, who are you?” The guy questioned. 

“Doesn’t matter. All the matters right now is that we keep quiet, don’t draw attention to ourselves, and find the rest of your group,” Elyza replied. “Do you have any idea where they are?”

The guy shook his head and Elyza frowned. It was dangerous to go searching up and down the aisles with such a massive horde around. They could easily get trapped in an aisle and that would not be good for anyone. But if she could get a better vantage point and see exactly where the other people were then it would be easier to figure out a way to get to them.

“Ok. This is a very risky plan, but it’s also the best we’ve got. It depends a lot on the zombies not being very bright, which lucky for us is something that has been proven time and time again,” Elyza paused and took a deep breath. “I’m going to climb up on top of these shelves and see if I can spot the rest of your people. Hopefully, the zombies won’t look up and see me. If they do, you guys need to get away from me as fast as you can. The exit is 5 aisles to the left and if you get out of here you should be fine. Ok? Good.”

Elyza didn’t wait for a reply before she was scaling the shelves. She did her best to keep as quiet as possible, but she did step on a few bags along the way. Once she was on top of the shelves she scanned the store. The horde was still mostly clustered in the center, and she spotted the other two members of the party fighting off a few zombies. On the cereal aisle. Which was across the massive horde of zombies.

“Shite.” Elyza said softly, closing her eyes and trying to come up with a plan.

Going through the horde was not an option. Not with 3 guns and an injured person. There was a possibility that they could go around the edge of the horde but that depended entirely on how fast they could move once they were out from the cover of the aisles. She wasn’t optimistic about her group moving fast, but it was the only option.

As she bent down to jump to the floor she noticed that the aisle below her was empty. She scanned the store for the three people she had saved and saw them running for the exit.

“Shite.” Elyza said.

A sizable chunk of the horde had spotted her up on the shelves and was slowly but surely ambling towards her. Elyza weighed her options. The Wal-Mart aisles were fairly narrow and she figured she could jump from the shelves she was on to the shelves across the aisle from her. The problem would be that she could only move laterally when, really she needed to be moving across the store towards the other people.

“Shite!” Elyza swore again. “Well, at least I’m not bored.”

And then she jumped.

She landed heavily on the shelves she had been aiming for and readied herself to jump to the next ones. She figured if she could move faster than the horde she could actually have a shot at saving the other people in here.

5 shelves later her knees were killing her and she was a couple of aisles ahead of the majority of the horde. She already had their attention so there was no need to keep from using her guns. So at least there was a silver lining to the whole shit-show. She jumped down from the shelves, shooting down 5 zombies with clean headshots once she landed. She kept moving, gunning down any zombies that got in her way.

She was approaching the other people just as a couple more zombies came up on them from behind.

“Christ,” Elyza groaned. “Of course I managed to get stuck with the biggest fucking tossers left in the apocalypse.”

Elyza shot the zombies through the head, reloading her pistol and skidding to a halt in front of the fiancé and daughter.

“Hello, why, yes, I did just save your life, your welcome. And don’t worry; I did the same with the rest of your people. They should be outside waiting for us by now. So lets get going before more of these wankers show up.” She said.

She turned to leave, stabbing a zombie through the side of the head and wiping her knife on a Shamwow from the display next to her before shoving it into her back pocket.

“I’m sorry, but who the hell are you?” The daughter spluttered. “You think that just because you shot a couple of walkers that we’re just going to follow you blindly? Well, we sure as hell aren’t.”

Elyza gritted her teeth. The zombies were getting closer with every second that this girl wasted being stubborn and stupid, and Elyza really did not feel like dying today.

“You bloody idiot,” She shot back. “How have you survived this long in the apocalypse? I’m assuming it’s a potent combination of pure dumb luck and relying solely on the skills of other people to get you out of situations like this one, cuz you sure as shite haven’t been doing anything for yourself, you fuckwit. Now, follow me out this back entrance or you have Buckley’s chance at keeping yourself from eating brains and living a miserable, half-dead life.” 

With that, Elyza spun around and stormed out of the aisle, not even bothering to check if they were following her. She took down three zombies, snapping their necks from behind and stabbing them through the head as an extra precaution. When she reached the entrance to the back office she kicked the door down, revealing a group of 15 or more zombies who had been trapped inside. They were all wearing blue polo shirts and nametags, and Elyza guessed that they had been turned during some kind of staff meeting.

“Oh, fuck me dead. Alright you two, I’m gonna distract them and you run for the exit while I have their attention on me.” Elyza said, gritting her teeth and springing into action.

She grabbed the closest zombie, snapping its neck and then kicking it back into its buddies, sending a heap of zombies toppling over onto the floor. Elyza shot down the next few zombies until she was left pulling the trigger on a gun that was devoid of bullets. She huffed and shoved the gun into her jacket pocket, pulling her shotgun out from the bag on her back. Two blasts and she had taken out the line of 5 zombies that were headed for her. 

By now the zombies she had pushed over had staggered upright and were once again advancing on her. The first one to reach for her got its rotting arm ripped off and its neck broken. Elyza used the arm to keep the rest of the zombies from getting too close while she stabbed them each through the ear. 

She quickly scanned the room for more zombies, sighing in relief when she didn’t see any. But she did see two healthy humans standing awe-struck by the door. 

“You two really are dumb as fuck, aren’t you? I told you to go for the exit while I had ‘em distracted, but I supposed that was a little too much for you to handle.” Elyza snarked.

“For your information-” The girl started

“Unfortunately, we don’t have time for what I’m sure was going to be a truly brilliant comeback,” Elyza said, smirking. “We’ve got to get the hell out of dodge before you somehow manage to be so incompetent that we get attacked by zombies in a room that I have just cleared of all undead. Now, let’s go.”

Elyza strode to the back door and threw it open, gesturing for the two others to go before her. The girl huffed and walked outside, crossing her arms and only blushing the slightest bit when Elyza smirked at her.

“I apologize for Alicia. She hasn’t exactly had the easiest time adjusting to this new world,” The man said. “I’m Travis, by the way, and I would just like to say thank you for saving our lives.”

“Well, Travis, I think it’s pretty fair to say that we’ve all been having a rough go of it lately, wouldn’t you?” Elyza said.

“Yes, I understand. But Alicia-” He stammered.

“Look, I get it. She’s what, 18? 19? It’s hard to adjust from a world of uni parties and course work to a life of fighting for you life everyday. I don’t mind the attitude; in fact I quite appreciate it. In case you haven’t noticed I don’t exactly have a very sunny disposition myself. It is what it is.” Elyza assured him.

Travis nodded and followed Alicia out the door. Elyza really did understand. She remembered being 18 and trying to transition to her new life at the academy. It hadn’t been easy to leave her old life behind and start a new one where she was constantly in danger and always on edge. But she also knew that it was necessary. If Alicia was going to survive this thing, then she would need to toughen up and get over herself. And Elyza figured she was just the thing to toughen Alicia up.

They met the rest of the group around the side of the store. Travis and the others hugged and looked each other over. The younger boy had gotten his leg cleaned up and without all the blood it was clearly just a gash, likely from one of the corners of the shelves. Alicia stood off to the side, listening to music on an iPod.

“Whatcha listenin’ to?” Elyza asked, sidling up to Alicia with a smirk firmly planted on her lips.

Alicia scowled, but Elyza could tell from her body language that she wasn’t as mad as she seemed. That was another thing they taught her at the academy. Reading body language was vital to undercover operations and her ability to read people had gotten her out of many a tight spot before. Alicia had taken out an ear bud when Elyza approached, her shoulders were back and angled slightly towards Elyza, and her hands were relaxed at her sides. She was at ease and having fun.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but its Paramore.” She admitted.

“Paramore? Slightly more punk rock than I expected from you sunshine.” Elyza teased.

“I guess I’m just a complex person.” Alicia shot back.

Elyza cocked an eyebrow.

“I guess “complex” is one word you could use to describe yourself.” She replied.

Alicia rolled her eyes.

“What word would you use then?”

“Truth be told, it’s actually two words.”

“Care to share with the class?” 

“Utterly fuckable.”

Alicia turned bright red, spluttering protests as Elyza threw her head back and laughed. Alicia hadn’t realized just how close they had been until Elyza stepped back to address the rest of the group.

“Now while I’m sure that all of you are truly wonderful people, I’m going to recommend that we skip introductions and head to shelter. How close is your base camp?” Elyza asked.

Travis and Madison looked at each other, clearly uneasy with giving away the location of where they were staying to a complete stranger, albeit one who had just single-handedly saved their lives. Elyza sighed and checked her watch.

“It’s 6:30. That means the sun goes down in half an hour. I don’t know about you guys, but I prefer to be inside and away from all the dead heads when it gets dark. My base camp is a 20-minute walk from here, which is doable but cuts it pretty close. If yours is closer then I think it would be best if we went there. I will leave in the morning, but for now I think it’s best if we get to the closest shelter that we have available.” She explained.

Travis and Madison still looked slightly uneasy at the idea of inviting someone into their home, even for a night.

“Jesus Mom. She just saved all of our lives for no reason other than the fact that she was there. Don’t we at least owe her shelter for a night?” Alicia exclaimed.

Elyza grinned. She knew Alicia liked her more than she was letting on. But now was not the time for big romantic gestures, no matter how cute the girl giving them out was. Now was the time to get safe as fast as possible.

“It’s fine. I get it. I’m a stranger and I clearly have some very dangerous skills. It’s obvious that if I chose to I could take all of you out. I understand why you wouldn’t want someone like that in your safe house. We can just go to my safe house for the night. I don’t have any of those qualms about my safety.” Elyza admitted.

“It’s not that we aren’t grateful. We understand that you saved our lives at great risk to your own. It’s just that we can’t afford to take any chances.” Madison stammered.

Elyza smiled tightly. She was used to people distrusting and disliking her. That came with the whole government-trained-killer territory. That didn’t mean it didn’t sting when she tried to do something good and people still didn’t trust her.

“Let’s just get going. Home sweet home is this way.” She said, heading down the street in the direction of her safe house.

Madison, Travis, Chris, and Nick walked in a group behind her. Alicia, with her headphones in and music blasting, walked slightly in front of them. Not far enough that she was actually walking with Elyza, but enough that she certainly wasn’t walking with her family either. Elyza dropped back to talk to her. 

“Paramore again?” Elyza teased.

Alicia narrowed her eyes as she took out an ear bud.

“No. It’s actually The, uh, The Beatles…” Alicia said hurriedly, blushing profusely. 

Elyza smirked. She didn’t need to call on her body language expertise to know that Alicia was lying. 

“Oh? Well, I love The Beatles. You wouldn’t mind if I listened too, would you?”

“Yes, yes I would, actually,” Alicia said. “This is my music, and my phone, and my headphones, and you have no business- Hey, give that back!”

Elyza had snatched the phone out of Alicia’s hand easily, pressing the power button to bring the screen to life. It lit up, revealing the music Alicia was actually listening to.

“Really? Lana Del Rey?” Elyza teased. “How old are you? 16?”

Alicia was blushing profusely.

“I’m 19! I’m, I’m an adult!”

“Right, ok, 19. So what you’re saying is, you’re still a teenager?” Elyza said, grinning.

“What? No! I’m an adult! I’ve been an adult for over a year!”

Elyza smirked. Alicia was so cute when she blushed. She didn’t think she could get any gayer than she already was, but apparently there was no limit.

“Whatever you say, short stuff.”

“Short? Short?! I’m 5”5’ and that’s above average! I’m not short!”

“Sure thing… kid.”

“I’m not-”

“And here we are! Home sweet home.”

The group had arrived in front of an apartment building. It was three stories tall with a tall metal gate and what looked to be a pretty nice lobby.

“Follow me, gang.” Elyza said, walking forward and unlocking the gate.

The lobby was just as nice as it had seemed from the outside. There were marble floors, a beautiful vaulted ceiling, a waiting area with some very plush and comfy-looking chairs, and a fountain. The fountain wasn’t actually on, but the effect was the same. Elyza was very proud of her makeshift home and she did her best to maintain the aura of class that the previous owners had instilled in the building. It allowed her to keep some semblance of the life she had lived before the whole world had gotten stuffed.

“The bottom two floors are pretty much how I found them, but I’ve been keeping the 3rd floor pretty clean and stocked if you want to stay up there,” Elyza suggested. “Either way, that’s where I’ll be if you need me. But, uh, do your best not to need me.”

She turned and began to climb the stairs. She desperately wanted to turn around and see if anyone was following her to the third floor. Well, not anyone. She wanted to see if Alicia was following her to the third floor. She didn’t know if Alicia was into her, or if she was even into girls at all, but Elyza was definitely into her. And that was bad. It was already shitty to fall for a straight girl, but add in the fact that it was the middle of the goddamn apocalypse and it made at least 100 times worse.

Then again, if Alicia was into her, well, Elyza could stand to do worse. Alicia’s ass was truly life changing and her eyes were fucking mesmerizing. It was almost too much. So the best Elyza could do was flirt her ass off, try not to fall too hard, and hope for the best. 

And if the footsteps following her up the stairs were any kind of indicator, she was doing pretty well so far.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I really enjoy writing this au and hopefully you guys like reading it :)
> 
> Unfortunately, I have ADHD which makes time-management and task-completion a bit of a nightmare for me. I am very dedicated to this fic and I try to write everyday but that isn't always enough. Therefore, I will not be updating this regularly. I will be updating it and continuing to write it but I am writing as I go so I can't make any promises like "every thursday" or anything like that. 
> 
> This fic will eventually include "it's only she who'll be the death of me" (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6961294). So you guys can read that if you're desperate for an update.
> 
> my tumblr is babybyke if you want to talk to me about this pic or clexa or lexark in general or if you just want to give me a reminder that I haven't updated in weeks haha


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